Does cinnamon break a fast?

A level teaspoon (2.6 g) of ground cinnamon has about 6 kcal. Most people use far less. A quarter-teaspoon sprinkle over coffee is about 1.6 kcal, and a cup of black coffee adds about 2 kcal more. On the four goals this site uses to sort answers, cinnamon is safe for weight loss and blood sugar. It is a grey area for autophagy and gut rest.

A sprinkle or a teaspoon is far below the common 50-calorie rule of thumb, which is not an official limit. So cinnamon keeps a weight-loss fast on track. The amount used to flavour a drink is too small to move blood sugar, so that goal is safe too. Autophagy is the strictest goal, and any calories may count. Ground cinnamon is also plant material your gut has to handle, though a sprinkle is a tiny amount. That puts both of those goals in the grey area.

Cinnamon is often sold as a way to lower blood sugar. A Cochrane review of the trials found there is not enough evidence to support using cinnamon for type 1 or type 2 diabetes. If you have diabetes, take your medicines as prescribed and treat cinnamon as a flavour.

What goes in with the cinnamon matters more than the spice. A level teaspoon of sugar is about 16 kcal of sugar, which breaks a blood-sugar fast. Coffee-shop style sugar-free syrups are about 0 kcal per 2 tablespoons (30 ml), but sugar-free pancake syrups are about 15 kcal, so read the label. A tablespoon of milk adds about 6 to 9 kcal, and its protein puts autophagy and gut rest at risk. A cinnamon latte is a milk drink and breaks a fast for those two goals.